Hairdryer Treatment

I think Sir Alex Ferguson must have too much time on his hands at the moment - because he's switched his attention away from winning the Premier League in England - to deliver one of his 'hairdryer' rants on the subject of Scotland's independence referendum. 

Playing the man rather than the ball, in my view, Sir Alex has accused the First Minister - Alex Salmond - of trying to 'silence' Scots who live in the rest of the UK - by calling for the cash they can donate to the referendum campaign to be capped at £500.

In response, Sir Alex decided to donate £501 to the Better Together, pro-Union camp - with the extra £1 being a symbol of his defiance presumably - and released a statement which said:

"Eight-hundred-thousand Scots, like me, live and work in other parts of the United Kingdom. We don’t live in a foreign country; we are just in another part of the family of the UK.

Scots living outside Scotland but inside the UK might not get a vote in the referendum, but we have a voice and we care deeply about our country.

It is quite wrong of the man who is supposed to be leader of Scotland to try and silence people like this. I played for Scotland and managed the Scotland team. No-one should question my Scottishness just because I live south of the Border."

Now this is really quite silly because no one is trying to silence people like Sir Alex who are very well placed to have their say - with or without a financial donation.

Sean Connery is another famous Scot and  a long-time supporter of independence - yet no one is suggesting that the former James Bond star is unable to speak up and air his views.

The point about capping donations is to stop big organisations or weathy individuals - from exerting undue influence over the campaign. 

Big private companies for example - or trade unions which are UK based in the main and have no compunction about using large sums of their members cash to influence campaign results - as they did in the recent Labour leadership elections, of course.

While most individual Labour party members voted for one candidate - the members' choice did not prevail - the deciding factor was trade union muscle and organisation - not the democratic principle of One Member One Vote.

Now that doesn't seem very fair or socialist to me - but then nor do the tax arrangements of many star football players which leave a lot to be desired as well.